


Bonds

by TheDarkFlygon



Series: Prism (Pride-Themed Oneshots) [10]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Universe, Families of Choice, Friendship, Gen, Implied Kurosaki Shun/Serena, Introspection, LGBTQ Themes, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:09:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24667396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkFlygon/pseuds/TheDarkFlygon
Summary: Ruri muses about bonds and what it means to have a family.
Relationships: Kurosaki Ruri & Kurosaki Shun, Kurosaki Ruri & Serena, Kurosaki Ruri/Yuto
Series: Prism (Pride-Themed Oneshots) [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1769908
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Bonds

**Author's Note:**

> Not gonna lie, I used that oneshot as an excuse to worldbuild some stuff for an upcoming fanfic. I needed to think my Arc-V cameos/secondary characters through and writing a little in Ruri's POV was perfect for that.  
> This is actually supposed to be set after some time in said fic, so we'll see how that goes. My brainstorming oneshots really aren't the part that age well in these circumstances lmao (*stares at Paradox of the Unreasonable Figure*).  
> This is the story for PM that so far has taken me the least time, which is an impressive feat in itself. To be fair, I also usually spend a couple hours dicking around doing nothing of value until it's like midnight and I realize I've only written like 50 words so far.  
> Also, in case this is somehow not on-the-nose enough: the prompt for yesterday was "Family".

Being stuck on a train with a silent travelling companion makes Ruri muse on things she doesn’t always think back to. Today, this has led her to a revelation that, really, isn’t coming as a shock to her: she may have lost her parents in a modern-day tragedy, she nonetheless still has a family.

Well, that’s wrong. Technically speaking, she still has her brother. They may not have bonds of blood, as they’re stepsiblings, but it doesn’t make him less of her sibling than if they had shared both of their parents’ genes. She doesn’t remember most of her biological family anyway, so why bother? Shun’s her big, somewhat feral, very overprotective older brother and that’s all there is to it.

What’s a family? A lot of people would find the question stupid and reply in the way they find the simplest or most obvious to state: a mother, a father, their children. Some would provide a more elaborate, fancy-sounding response instead: a family is legacy tied by blood from the ancestors to the newest generation. Others are just going to extend the first definition, either by mentioning other members (grandparents, uncles and haunts, cousins, nieces and nephews, family pets…) or by making notes of structures that aren’t nuclear (single parents, childless couples, polyamorous pacts…).

All in all, and for a long time, Ruri felt like her version of a family wasn’t valid, wasn’t _good enough_. Her brother and she had very little in common in their blood, didn’t share the same chromosomes at all. Yet, Shun was no different from all of her elementary high classmates’ siblings. He was just as overprotective and overbearing as most older brothers she’d hear about, a phenomenon that only intensifies after the sad and sudden passing of their parents.

For some time, it was them versus the entire world. When Mom and Dad (well, he’s actually her stepfather, but her biological father is nothing but a shadow she doesn’t want to see) died, she was fifteen and Shun was seventeen. Despite being busy with a part-time job to help them survive, he still found time to tell her she was a lovely sister to have and that he’d protect her from the dangers of the world.

Now that she began college and has picked up a part-time job of her own (not without having to fight for Shun’s permission to do so, but he did give in more easily than she expected him to, if he even was to give said permission to her in the next lifetime), Ruri has found the occasion to spend more time with him. They’re in totally different years, but the coffeeshop has been one of their favourite spots to spend time in.

During the times where Shun would never be home for long, even when afflicted with whatever disease he had managed to catch for himself or whatever injury he had gotten at work or trying to defend her against bullies whenever she’d vent for a little too long, Ruri had gotten the time to think about what a family was.

High school was a little tougher on her than for most people, she’d have guessed. Not having parents around meant she’d always get home on her own despite her own sibling attending the same high school as she did because of his packed schedule. Fortunately, not everything about that time was bad as that was the time around which she first heard of the saying “found family”. Coincidentally, that was also when she met the two people she’d absolutely consider as her family aside from Shun: her then-classmates, Yuto and Serena.

Yuto was her first true love, she found herself realizing. He was an old friend of Shun, but he had never introduce his best friend to him as, back then, Yuto lived in another prefecture altogether: her brother and he were pen pals and fellow online players who’d met on a MMORPG. Surprisingly, he was around her age despite his atypical calm and composed attitude towards most things. At first, they bonded over their shared knowledge of Shun, but it quickly became more than that and, before she knew it, they were best friends, then boyfriend and girlfriend. That made him part of her family, in her opinion: he was like a brother to her brother, that was more than enough for her. Someone she could trust in and lean on whenever things were smiling or frowning, now that was family.

That day had been more than a little weird. That was the first time she was mentioning to him her doubts about possibly being attracted to girls. While she was afraid, Yuto showed her it was nothing to be ashamed of, telling her about his own questioning as they walked home together holding hands. She never actually confessed his love to him and vice-versa: it was merely a natural thing. When she announced that to Shun, along with her realization on her own attraction and feelings, he merely shrugged it off with a smile he couldn’t hide for long. As always, she managed to fluster the both of them by bringing them both into a hug.

Serena, on the other hand, was tougher to get to know. She was their class’s representative and a fierce figure to deal with: determined, no-nonsense, head of the class, straight A student, perfectionist. In a way, she reminded her of her brother, as if they exuded the same strict vibes that she had gotten so accustomed to. Ruri never even thought she’d ever be able to gather the guts to talk to her face-to-face even once.

However, when accusations of a nature that should’ve bothered no one started to come around, Yuto and she had been the ones to comfort Serena in her one insecurity, the one she really shouldn’t have had. Well, she had two of these, but they could both relate to the one the class was accusing her over, and that was how they eventually grew to be best friends. They spent afternoons studying and doing anything but that, sometimes with Yuto, sometimes without him, usually at Ruri’s place, sometimes at school or at the public library.

Ruri and Serena easily bonded over one thing: they didn’t have biological parents running around anymore. However, the latter had it worse than the former: she had no sibling to take care of her and wasn’t old enough to survive by herself, so she lived in an orphanage where she was helping around. For a little while, they were wondering if they weren’t also falling for each other, but Ruri quickly came to realize that she wasn’t experiencing

Nowadays, Serena may or may not be courting Shun (something she may not be realizing she’s doing, but you can’t fool Ruri who managed to guess who was dating who in high school by just looking at them), which is, in a way, quite ironic. Ruri has always considered Serena as a slightly older sister ever since clearing up her own doubts, born in the early months of winter when she’s an autumn baby. Now, well, she was technically her sister in a way. Still not by blood, but that didn’t matter and, for once, the rest of society would agree.

Suddenly, Shun’s voice breaks her out of her musing. When she turns to face him, he sees somewhat of a confusion on his face.

“What’re you waiting for? If we don’t get down soon, that train will leave with us still inside!”

In a hurry, she grabs her purse and gets off her seat, her arm soon arriving around her brother’s.

“Everyone’s waiting for us home, so we should hurry!” She replies as they get off the train and arrive on the platform, watching Yuto wave at them and Serena wait by his side, silently smirking with her hands behind her back.

Before long, Ruri runs to them, dragging her brother along. _Welcome home_ indeed.


End file.
